jerry springer show

TV Guide voted it the "Worst TV Show Ever." The show's own tagline was once, "An hour of your life you'll never get back." Whatever description you want to slap on 'The Jerry Springer Show,' you can't deny that the guy, and the scummy, scummy show, has longevity. And, if we're all being honest, we have to admit we've chuckled at an episode or two.

Today's 'Springer Takes Times Square' installment (check local listings for time and channel) of the daytime series finds Jerry -- and a round-up of celebs that includes Kathy Griffin, Perez Hilton, Maury Povich, the women of 'The View' and Rachael Ray -- celebrating 20 years on the air ... 20 freakin' years.

The latest episode of 'The Jerry Springer Show' (weekdays, syndicated) has this intriguing title: "I HAD SEX WITH YOUR TRANNY BROTHER." See, that's the nice thing about the 'Springer' show. Even if you click over in the middle of an episode, you can still read the title on the screen and figure out what is going on.

On the show, Jerry Springer talks with a young man named "Weasel," who has cheated on his girlfriend. And as you may have guessed by now, he cheated on her with his girlfriend's transsexual brother. Weasel tells an improbable story that involves him passing out, then randomly waking up to find the brother performing oral sex on him. "I'm not gay!" Weasel says. "I'm not gay!"

But his story doesn't really make sense. And the transsexual brother in question insists that Weasel is gay.

Jerry listens to Weasel's tale -- in which the young man is implausibly trapped into having sex with another man against his will. Then, Jerry offers up a very simple conclusion. "You're gay," he says to Weasel.

The syndicated talk shows (and I use that term very, very loosely) Jerry Springer and Mauryhave been renewed through the 2010 season. Yes, that's right, for three more seasons. Springer will start its 17th season this fall and Maury its 10th.

That means we'll have three more glorious seasons of actors ordinary citizens throwing chairs at each other and wrestling and three more intriguing years of morons ordinary citizens taking paternity tests to see if they're the father of a woman's baby.